Page 21 of Rooster

She considers this for a moment.

"I know I wouldn't," she says after a long beat of silence.

"We're different," I mutter, turning my machine off.

"How do you figure?" she challenges, and I can already hear the argument in her tone. On any other day, maybe I could look past it, but I've been cooped up for days, and it's driving me insane.

"Maybe you're fine with staying here, never leaving, and letting these men look after you, but I can't. I can't sit around and do absolutely nothing with my life and be okay with it."

She shrinks back like I've slapped her in the face. I should probably stop while I'm ahead, but instead, I let my irritation flow.

"I refuse to be helpless and reliant on anyone, Kaylee."

Her eyes dip as she chews the inside of her cheek.

She pulls in a deep breath.

"I guess we are different because I'd rather be bored than dead."

With those last words, she walks out of the room, leaving me standing there feeling like a complete asshole.

As much as I want to go to my room and pack my stuff up, I head toward the big room where the guys always meet instead. At a minimum, I can take her advice and see if they can put some stuff in place to keep me a little safer than I'd be if I were out traversing the world alone, despite having done it every day as an adult thus far.

I tap my knuckles on the door before stepping inside. I don't want to interrupt Robert. I know he's always busy helping one of the guys.

His smile is bright when he looks up from his computer monitors and sees me standing there.

"Good morning," he says.

"Morning," I reply. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," he says, straightening up higher in his chair. "What's up?"

"I have some questions, but I don't know who the boss is around here. I don't know who to talk to."

His eyes sparkle as if there's some inside joke I'm not privy to.

"We don't really have a boss right now," he says. "I guess it would be Kincaid. He runs the New Mexico chapter of Cerberus."

I have so many questions about this organization, despite it not being any of my business, but I won't burden him with them today.

"I need to know what the plan is where I'm concerned," I say as I pull out one of the chairs circling the massive conference table in the middle of the room.

"What do you mean?"

I shrug, looking up at the massive television to see Twisted and Bandera playing pool somewhere in the house. It looks like a place I haven't ventured to yet, but even knowing there are places on the property I haven't explored doesn't exactly thrill me. It doesn't matter how big the property is; it still feels like I'm trapped within the walls.

I notice the dart board on the wall in the video, and instead of asking him about going home or, at minimum, returning to work, I get an idea.

"Are you busy right now?"

He looks from me back to his computer screens.

"Not particularly. I mean, there's always something I could be doing. The work never ends around here."

"They aren't working," I say, pointing to the guys on the television.

"No," he says with a wide, vibrant smile. "They aren't."

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